Karma's a bitch, ain't it?

[MaggieTheCat]

This makes me so happy in a diabolical kind of way, that I just have to share.

As some of you may have read in various posts of mine, I used to work in the call center of a pet supply company. It was a decent job, and I learned a lot there, especially once they promoted me to "supervisor" (I say supervisor in quotes because I did so much more than any regular supervisor, I should have been an assistant manager) but I was extremely relieved and glad when I left. The stress level during the last 6 months or so that I was there was incredible, I was looking for another job left and right even though I had plans to move to Texas. Most of it was caused by the jacked up schedule they had me on (nights then days then afternoons then nights then days kind of week) and the fact that most of the people I worked with were whiny pieces of crap who I didn't get along with very well because they were so annoying.

Well, I just found out from a friend of mine who still works there, that there was a mass firing spree today. In particular, one of the head managers of the call center, who I clashed with on more than one occasion and who has been with the company for something like 17 years, was walked out bright and early this morning by the owners. Also two of the super whiny, annoying bitches who worked in the same office as I did were let go as well!

This makes me happy, very happy. Am I a bad person for being so happy about this? I fully feel like all but maybe two of the people who I know were let go, completely deserve what they got. The manager, in particular, was a HORRIBLE manager, in both the sense of managing employees and running a call center. She didn't have any prior managing experience before becoming a manager in the call center, and never went to school for office administration or anything. And she just didn't know what she was doing. She pushed her weight around, even (especially) when people made suggestions that made more sense than what she wanted to do.

[tropicsgoddess]

I don't blame you for being happy about that at all. Hey, payback is a bitch ain't it?

[MaggieTheCat]

So, let me give an example of what management did once that I remember being particularly horrible. I do not think the blame for this incident rests entirely on the head manager I mentioned earlier, but she no doubt had the biggest part in its final outcome. This took place probably about 3 to 3 1/2 years ago.

Players:
C - An agent in the call center
A - An agent in the customer care department of the call center.

The call center was booming. We were busy, sales were not great but were good. Management decided to hire another supervisor. They posted the job internally first, as they usually do, and A, who had been with the company for a long time and was very knowledgeable, applied and was hired for the position.

Since the department A came from, customer care, is a small, specialized department, they immediately posted his former job since they needed his spot filled. C applied for and was hired for that job. She had been with the company for about 6 months and was showing a lot of promise. She had caught on quickly to how the phones and order entry system work, and was very good at dealing with upset customers. Her customer service skills were well above average.

About 6 weeks later, management decided they needed to downsize. I don't know how they went from "the call center is busy, we need another supervisor" to "crap sales are down we need to lay people off" in that short of time. A lot of people think they jumped the gun way too soon, especially since they started hiring again about 2 months after downsizing.

Anyway, they decided to cut back on supervisors. Instead of outright firing A, they demoted him back to customer care. But then they had too many people in customer care, so they fired C instead. It was not because she was not doing well. In fact, she was doing remarkably well for someone who had only been in the department for 6 weeks and showed enough promise to surpass some of the other agents who had been in the department longer than her, given enough time and training. They didn't even offer her her old job back, as a regular agent. They just fired her.

And, like I said, about 2 months later, they started hiring again. I don't think it was even that long before they started hiring and training regular agents again, and it was around 2 months that they asked A to take his supervisor job back again -- and thus, had another opening in customer care. Again.

Like I said, I don't think the head manager made this decision entirely on her own. But she no doubt decided who to cut, where, and how, and I think it could have been handled much, much better than it was. They were entirely idiotic to demote A in the first place, nevermind firing C in the process. At the very worst, they should have offered C to go back to being an agent instead of firing her. They lost a very valuable agent when they let her go.